Childhood obesity linked to higher risk of cancers in adults

Jerusalem: Obesity in childhood has a direct link with bladder and urinary tract cancers and bowel cancers in adulthood, a new research has claimed. Researchers from Tel Aviv University found that obesity in adolescence has a direct link to the incidence of urothelial (bladder and urinary tract) and colorectal (bowel) cancers in adulthood. [caption id=“attachment_389618” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] The research was conducted by Dr Ari Shamiss and Dr Adi Leiba of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sheba Medical Center and fellow researchers. “Children above the 84th percentile in BMI have a 1.42 percent greater chance, representing a 50 percent higher risk, of developing urothelial or colorectal cancers in adulthood compared to those beneath it,” explained Shamiss in a Tel Aviv statement. “We need to examine the questions of whether obesity is a direct risk factor for cancer or a confounding factor for a genetic variation,” he said. To examine the relationship between obesity and cancers, the researchers conducted a longitudinal study of a cohort of 1.1 million males in the Israeli Defense Forces. Their health information was gathered by the army, with a follow-up period of 18 years. The researchers discovered a clear link between childhood BMI and those who were diagnosed with urothelial or colorectal cancers later in life. The research was published in the journals ‘Cancer Epidemiology’, ‘Biomarkers and Prevention’ and ‘Obesity’. PTI